Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

New Year's Comedy Extravaganza at Massey Hall
When I ran across a mention on The Fratics Web site that they would be playing at Massey Hall for a "Comedy Extravaganza", I knew I had to go to it. Erika had already made plans to spend New Year's at a party at. Don's place, so my option was either a night out to see The Frantics, Sean Cullen and other performers, or spend the evening with Erika's trumpet-playing buddies. I opted for comedy, since I knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't go to the comedy show at Massey Hall.

I got a good seat 7 rows up and to the left of the stage -- close enough to have a good view of everything, but not close enough to likely be singled out by any of the comics as a "target". A consideration when Sean Cullen is on stage.

After a brief musical intro from Sean Cullen's band that drew everybody who had been idling in the aisles to their seats, the show opened with an all-too-brief single-skit by The Improbables, where they were table-top hockey players seeking a raise. Smart, funny, young and there's definitely a synergy there -- a troupe worth watching. Then on came Sean Cullen, MC for the night. His usual off-the-wall, surreally-tinged routine had me in stitches prior to the introduction of the next comic. Ron Josol was okay, but as an Asian comic I found it disappointing that his routine settled into how his father always talked with a strong Philipino accent. I enjoyed the next comic, Rob Ross, more as he was edgier and had a more laconic, confident delivery.

Next came Jessica Holmes, who came onstage impersonating Liza Minnelli, launching into a song about being in rehab sung to the tune of "New York, New York". Ugh. She's the comedienne who recently signed on with the Air Farce, and while her impersonations are good, that brand of humour just doesn't do anything for me. Forget about shooting fish in a barrel, doing comic impersonations of stars who are already self-parodies of themselves is more like throwing in a grenade in that same fish -- no subtlety, no glimmer of empathetic humanity under the wig and costume changes, and lots of smushed fish parts everywhere. Change-the-channel material for me if it was on TV.

Things improved considerably after the intermission, starting with Sean Cullen picking on someone who had not bothered to dress up at all for the evening. The song he improvised, called "Sweater Vest" was one of the highlights of the show.

The next comic, Laurie Elliot, was introduced as having been the winner of a recent comedian's competition. She was good, with sharp, edgy material, mainly centered about sex and marriage. She would have been better if she was a bit more self-confident in herself and her material, but she was an improvement over most of what had come before.

The act that really wowed me was Daryn Jones, formerly a co-star of Buzz. I wasn't really expecting much, since Buzz was typically the sort of Canadian comedy show that I would watch for maybe 5-minutes only after it something I had watched through, and then flip over to something else when no laughs seemed forthcoming anytime soon. So was blown away by Jones' confident, snarlingly sarcastic, dead-on stand-up performance. Smart, thoughtful comedy I would easily go see again.

Then came on The Frantics. They picked several skits that had proven to be winners at previous shows, including "Roots Song", "Dirty Words", "Leonard Cohen Xmas Song", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Performed by a Grade 5 Class" and to top it off "Menarche on the Go Train" as a finale. About a half-hour tops, but it was all great.

After the show I met another long-time Frantics fan, Katherine B. and her boyfriend, who had come in from Kingston to see the show. Nice to finally get to meet this person, who I have only known via email up until now -– nice to put a face to a name.

A good way to round out the old year, and bring in the new.